Google's Name Game

Backlash and confusion have dogged
Google
's plans to scan millions of books, and, while continuing with its efforts, it has opted for a name change from Google Print to Google Book Search.

"We don't think that this new name will change what some folks think about this program," says Jen Grant, product marketing manager for Google
, via the company's Web site. "But we do believe it will help a lot of people understand better what we're doing."

Google insists that its book-scan program doesn't infringe on the rights of copyright holders, and that it is simply trying to create an online card catalog that happens to have a searchable index of every word in a book.

"We think a more descriptive name will help clarify what our users can do with it: namely, search the full text of books to find ones that interest them and learn where to buy or borrow them," Grant says.

A group of authors has sued Google over its plans, and a name change isn't likely to dissuade them from pressing forward. An alternate book-scanning project is being conducted by
Yahoo!
and
Microsoft
in conjunction with publishers.

Google announced its initial plans to scan books late last year via partnerships with university libraries at Harvard, Michigan, Oxford and Stanford, as well as the New York Public Library.

The company wants to make its own database accessible only via searches on its own Web site but also those of its partners. The company can then sell ads connected to the keywords used to search the books. Google has already released its first batch of searchable books, but they were mostly works whose copyright protection has lapsed.

Another possible reason for dropping Google Print is that the name conflicts with a newer venture at Google--selling ads through print publications like magazines and newspapers.

The project is still in development, and its future remains unclear as it currently concerns only a couple of print outlets, but its name thus far is Google Publication Ads.

During the company's third-quarter earnings call, co-founder and President
Sergey
Brin
Sergey Brin
said testing of placement of ads continues, and that "hundreds of other publications have expressed interest in participating."